Venue Void

Nine years ago, I attended a Tragically Hip show at the Agridome (long before it became the Brandt center), and Gordo - the chicken-dancing and energetic lead singer - forever stole my heart and plunged it into the vat of live music. I was hooked. I finally understood my mom's hayday story about how "a pregnant lady crowd-surfing out of line at the Zep concert and the loud tunes cracking the roof in Seattle". It wasn't about the music. It was about the sweat. It was about the ringing ears. It was about the dancing and the crazed, tribal crowd mentality.

Now, I can say I've attended hundreds of shows. I've been to every venue in Regina: The Exchange (and the Club), McNally's, O'Hanlons, Riddel Centre Multipurpose Room, the Owl, Buffalo Lounge, every community centre and church basement, Centre of the Arts, the Distrikt (the State), Gas Light, and the Brandt Centre...forgive me if I've forgotten some!

I was also lucky enough to have lived in Saskatoon (Amigos, Lydia's, Connexus Arts Centre, etc.) and Toronto (the Phoenix, HorseShoe, Molson Place, etc.), and have learned something: There is a void in the Regina music community.

I believe we are now peaking at a population where a mid-sized concert venue would be an appropriate place for those entrepreneurs out there to make a profit. There is nothing sufficient in this city to house the margins between 700-1000 people, which absolutely urks me.

I mean, most bands that I really want to see completely skip over this province, and if they hit Saskatchewan, it's usually Saskatoon. Whenever I've made trips up to Toon Town to popular shows at small venues, it has been packed, and there's usually still people hanging outside in rage over the sold-out ticket.

So, here's my plea to Regina and Saskatoon: Rally forces and raid a quonset. We need a big room to dance and enjoy some flippity rock tunes.

A little country...and a little rock and roll. Dani out.